How do you feel about your 14 year old self?

[sqbr]

I keep seeing discussions about this on tumblr, and have a Theory about how it relates to age. Apologies to people over 55, I realise you are not a monolith :)

Poll #12633

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 48

How embarrassed would you say you are about the person you were at 14?

Very
5 (10.4%)

a little
12 (25.0%)

not at all
30 (62.5%)

I am 13 or under!
0 (0.0%)

other
1 (2.1%)

If you are fairly embarrassed, how old are you?

14
0 (0.0%)

15-19
2 (22.2%)

20-24
1 (11.1%)

25-29
2 (22.2%)

30-34
2 (22.2%)

35-39
1 (11.1%)

40-44
1 (11.1%)

45-49
0 (0.0%)

50-54
0 (0.0%)

55+
0 (0.0%)

If you are NOT particularly embarassed, how old are you?

14
0 (0.0%)

15-19
1 (2.4%)

20-24
5 (12.2%)

25-29
7 (17.1%)

30-34
8 (19.5%)

35-39
7 (17.1%)

40-44
5 (12.2%)

45-49
2 (4.9%)

50-54
2 (4.9%)

55+
4 (9.8%)

Comments

[wendelah1]

Apologies to people over 55, I realise you are not a monolith :)

LOL.

[tree]

YOU KNOW THAT NO ONE OVER 40 USES A COMPUTER MUCH LESS GOES ON TUMBLR

[wendelah1]

So I've been told. I keep forgetting.

[sqbr]

And now you turn out to be over 10% of the data and I feel extra bad!

[yalovetz]

I wouldn't say I'm embarrassed for my 14 year old self. I feel sympathy, compassion, and sadness for them, but not embarrassment.

[thedivinegoat]

This.

[sqbr]

Yeah that's about how I feel too. (Ok, I'm a little embarrassed. But not majorly, and mainly for the bad flaws she had that I still haven't worked past)

[samvara]

I love my 14 yr old self, she was surviving some terrible stuff, making lifelong friends and very good at finding allies.

[sqbr]

Good for her :)

[(Anonymous)]

I vastly prefer my 14-year-old self to my 17-20 year-old self. I'm not embarrassed of any of them, though. It's more that I think my 17-20 year-old self was annoying as fuck.

[esmenet]

...now that I think about it again, I am a lot less embarrassed then I thought I was. I don't remember it very well, partly because that was right before I started learning about *isms, and partly because I started learning Japanese at community college when I was fifteen. But I think I was fourteen when I first watched Evangelion, and I am not at all embarrassed about my first-off reactions to that show (namely: it sucks to be Shinji and I have a lot of sympathy for him, Asuka is a really interesting character who badly needs some hugs, Misato is amazing, and the original TV ending is super uplifting). And I think at roughly that age I did tell my friends to say 'hey, stop that,' if I did something they didn't like, so fourteen-year-old me was probably alright.

[sqbr]

And I think at roughly that age I did tell my friends to say 'hey, stop that,' if I did something they didn't like

I'm still getting the hang of this at 33!

[torachan]

I might think "omg those clothes!" or "how could I have thought that boy was cute!?" or things like that about my younger self, but that's not embarrassment (at least not for me).

[sqbr]

I mostly excuse the taste in clothes by remembering what "cool" 90s clothes looked like. I was going to look terrible regardless :)

[lian]

I...don't reflect on my younger self in that way, so can't answer the poll, because the only question I've repepatedly asked myself was what my younger self would think of me today. Odd? Probably.

[sqbr]

Interesting! I think about that a lot too. (Also, time traveling in general)

[pebblerocker]

I often wonder if my younger self would be disappointed in me, think my adult life is boring, or say I'd sold out to the man.

[lian]

well, I know younger self would be disappointed/alarmed, but not in any way of "sold out to the man" (not sure I ever thought in such concepts.) Really I wonder what she would think of the way I self-present (esp. fashion/style), because that used to be the major source of neverending awkwardness. Superficial, yes :) I suppose she'd be relieved with that aspect, though, so hey :P

I suppose the reason I can't think of my younger self negatively is that I know I was tons more intellectually curious and shame/fearless, and that so positive it trumps everything really.

[kaz]

I'm sort of horrifically embarrassed for my selves pre-age of eighteen and especially pre-16 or so because that was before I'd really done work on my social skills and so whenever I look back I end up in this tailspin of "oh god I didn't realise body language existed or that people could lie what did I do what did I say what did people THINK oh god".

Although, to tie into your theory, the embarrassment has trended downwards with time and I've become more sympathetic.

[sqbr]

I had terrible social skills but was hyper aware of how terrible they were, so am much more sympathetic to myself now than I was at the time.

Although, to tie into your theory, the embarrassment has trended downwards with time and I've become more sympathetic.

Yes, that has been my general experience with all my younger selves's flaws.

[fred_mouse]

Attempting to answer the poll crashed my browser, and then attempting to parse the second and third questions crashed my brain. I no longer find myself able to answer the question. :(

[sqbr]

Ack, I'm sorry that happened!

[carmarthen]

I think my 14-year-old self was kind of adorable: she loved art and could sing all of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat from the top. Dorky and very very teenage, sure.

My 18-22-year-old self I am less fond of, but she was pretty depressed and not always hanging with the best social group for her, so I try to be compassionate.

(I'm 28.)

[sqbr]

Yes, whenever people talked about being embarrassed of their 14 year old self I thought "But my 23 year old self was SO MUCH WORSE". Though perhaps in another 5-10 years I will have gained enough distance not to mind her so much either.

[susanreads]

Other = I don't remember my 14-year-old self.

[sqbr]

This is why it's important to always have an "other" option :)

[pseudo_tsuga]

Adding another data point, I am 23 years old and I'm horrifically embarrassed by my 14 year old self. It's nice to hear that goes down though!

[sqbr]

Well, the other possibility is that those of us born in the 70s and early 80s were simply a better quality of teenager :D

[pseudo_tsuga]

/nods Very true! One can never discount all the possibilites.